As reported by Reuters.
On November 21, the United States officially issued a general license granting an exemption from American sanctions against Russia for the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant in Hungary, in which Russia is participating. The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced this.
The license allows operations related to the project to be conducted through several Russian banks, including Gazprombank, VTB, and the Central Bank of Russia.
According to the statement, the decision was made after Hungary signed in November a cooperation agreement in the field of nuclear energy with the United States during a meeting between President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Under the agreement, Hungary intends to purchase American nuclear fuel and American technologies for spent fuel storage as part of the Paks-2 project.
The Paks-2 Project and the Development Context
This is Hungary’s only nuclear power plant. It is located about 5 km from the town of Paks on the Danube and about 100 km south of Budapest. The power units were commissioned between 1982 and 1987.
The NPP operates four VVER-440 reactors with a total capacity of around 2000 MW and provides roughly half of the country’s electricity.
Under the 2014 agreement with Russia, Hungary intends to expand the plant with two Russian-made VVER reactors, each with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Hungarian government did not abandon the expansion of the NPP and threatened to block any EU sanctions against Russian nuclear energy.
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